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Naruto themed cafe in Akihabara is where all the ninjas eat

KK Miller
Jun 3, 2015
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Time and time again we have professed the end of Naruto. While the original manga has certainly finished, there always seems to be something new for Masashi Kishimoto’s ninja clans. If you haven’t gotten your fill of Naruto yet with the new manga featuring Naruto’s son or the live-action theater production of the series, you should ninja run to the Adores building in Tokyo’s Akihabara. Their collaboration cafe is currently featuring the boisterous boy ninja and all his sneaky pals, but you better get there quick before the whole cafe ninja vanishes!

Nintendo: Next console’s OS is not Android

Anime News Network
Jun 3, 2015

Company responds to Nikkei’s report that NX’s OS is Android-based.

Eevee Evolutions captured in silver & gold necklaces

Anime News Network
Jun 2, 2015

The new wave of Eevee merchandise continues with a series of necklaces. There are nine necklaces for each of the evolutions represented on a silver, gold, or rose gold pendant with a semi-precious or precious stone. The price varies depending on which metal the buyer chooses. The jewelry is being made in a collaboration with K Uno.

May all your fairy tale dreams come true, with these real wearable glass slippers!

Meg Murphy
Jun 2, 2015

For any of you who have ever wished for your own fairy tale ending, for your Prince Charming to come and sweep you off your feet and carry you away to his kingdom, or if you ever simply wondered what it would be like to wear shoes made of a material that could potentially shatter and cut your feet to bits, well then these real blown-glass, Cinderella-inspired slippers are just what you’ve been looking for!

Looking for a great meal in Tokyo? Try this cigarette stand

Master Blaster
Jun 2, 2015

When starting a restaurant, creating a good appearance is important. In a way, the look of an eatery reflects the quality of food that it serves. Looks can be deceptive, however, as just like people, the beauty of a restaurant might be limited to the surface.

The opposite also holds true, though, as our own Mr. Sato learned during an excursion to the Dogenzaka area of Tokyo. Inside this unassuming cigarette stand that you wouldn’t even realize was a restaurant, he found one of the best meals he ever had.

Splatoon dominates Japanese video site, makes us wonder if everyone is eating properly

Preston Phro
Jun 2, 2015

While the Wii U hasn’t exactly been the biggest success in Nintendo’s history, we can’t help wondering if newly released game Splatoon is going to help turn things around. The game currently has a score of 81 on Metacritic (and an 8.3 out of 10 from users), so it’s certainly getting some appreciation from gamers and game critics alike overseas. Someone in Europe even stole a truck full of copies of the game and Amiibo!

But how about in Japan? We already know that there seems to be a lot of younger people excited about it, but it’s not just kids who are loving the game…

Japan’s 10 weirdest ice cream flavors

Jessica
Jun 2, 2015

Temperatures are shooting up all around the archipelago and that means soft serve season has come to Japan! For some baffling reason, vanilla remains far and away the most popular flavor for Japanese, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get creative with their frozen treats too. Flavors like green tea and ume plum are easy to find (and delicious), but don’t stop there if you want to try some really out there local flavors.

Here are our choices for the 10 weirdest soft serve flavors Japan has to offer.

Super Mario is turning 30, Nintendo celebrates with a trip down memory lane and a new project

KK Miller
Jun 2, 2015

Do you remember where you were when you played your first Super Mario Bros. game? If you’re old-school like us, you’ll probably remember the feel of that rectangular gray NES controller in your hands, or if you’re Japanese old-school, then the burgundy Famicom controller probably means a great deal to you. If you are a bit younger, perhaps your first time with Nintendo’s rotund plumber was with Super Mario World or Super Mario 64. Or how about Super Mario Sunshine or Super Mario Galaxy? Needless to say, if you are a gamer, you’ve got a Mario memory somewhere in there!

Nintendo is excited to celebrate the 30 years of Mario this year, and they want you to head down the warp pipe to check out the history of Mario and what is coming up next.

Tokyo Disneyland’s Buzz Lightyear has a friend in Woody, and also a friend in his crotch

Casey Baseel
Jun 1, 2015

There are only so many hours in a day, which means all the time you devote to listening to Japanese girls’ rock bands or learning a half-dozen ways to says “breasts” in Japanese means less time for soaking up mainstream American pop culture. As a result, I’ve got some pretty big gaps in my Hollywood movie-watching history, but at least I know their basic plots because they’ve been talked about and referenced elsewhere so much.

For example, I know Titanic is about an elderly woman fondly remembering some dude she hooked up with on a cruise 70 years ago, who was apparently so good in the sack that she has no time on her deathbed to remember her children or the man who fathered them. Forest Gump is about remarkably patient bus travelers who are willing to listen to the life story a complete stranger because of his vague promises of giving them chocolate at some point.

And Toy Story, as I can infer from these Tokyo Disneyland photos, is about how a humble cowboy and abrasive astronaut learn to overcome their differences and become pals when one gives the other a hand job, right?

Nintendo might be using Android to power its next games console

BUSINESS INSIDER
Jun 1, 2015

Nintendo may be ditching its historic proprietary operating systems (OS) and instead using Android to power its next games console, according to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Kotaku reported.

If true, this could be a big win for Google, while helping to boost Nintendo’s flagging sales.

All-you-can-eat buffet for 500 yen?! Mr. Sato investigates

Meg Murphy
May 31, 2015

Swedish furniture store Ikea has made a name for itself worldwide, not only for the size of its stores and decently priced, assemble-it-yourself furnishings, but also for the extremely cheap fare found in their food courts.

Now, they’re really putting the icing on the cake: For a limited time, Ikeas across Japan are having an hour-long all-you-can-eat “Oriental Buffet” for the insane price of only 500 yen (US$4)! But what will only 500 yen get you, you ask? Actually quite the spread, it seems!

Put the razor down! Survey reveals 2 out of 3 Japanese women prefer their men with hairy armpits

SoraNews24
May 31, 2015

Personal tastes are just that: Personal. What gets one person going is likely to leave someone else bored — and there’s nothing wrong with that of course. I’d be awfully sad if everyone liked strawberry ice cream as much as I do because then there’d be none left for me.

And nothing shows this quite as much as men and their body hair. More specifically, how Japanese women feel about body hair on certain parts of the male anatomy. We are, of course, talking about shins and armpits! (Why? What were you thinking?)

Look into our crystal ball; we see a Pokémon that’s right for you!【Pics】

KK Miller
May 31, 2015

Every pokémon trainer has their special pokémon. Whether it’s one of the starter pokémon that you kept with you all over the Kanto region, or one of the hundreds of pokémon you can catch along the way, there is always that one particular friend that you just can’t bear to leave in storage.

If you’d like to immortalize your poképal, or if you are just a fan of the Pokémon anime or video games, then you have to take a look at these one of a kind pokéballs on Etsy that will crystallize the memory of your pokémon forever.

Personified emotions from Pixar’s “Inside Out” get nifty kanji makeover in Japanese posters!

Kay
May 30, 2015

Fans of Pixar are sure to be eagerly waiting the release of the studio’s newest movie, Inside Out (or Inside Head as it’s being called in Japan). The film may have caused a slight stir on the Japanese Internet for having a theme that’s noticeably similar to that of the Japanese manga and movie Poison Berry in My Brain (Nonai Poison Berry), but Pixar’s new offering is bound to draw huge crowds when it comes out on June 19 in the U.S. and July 18 in Japan.

And one thing the movie certainly seems to have going for it in Japan is cool poster artwork. Check out these Japanese posters for Inside Out which feature beautiful kanji calligraphy representing each of the emotions that appear in the movie!

Our Japanese reporter gets a heaping helping of American Denny’s

Master Blaster
May 30, 2015

Our Japanese writers are certainly no strangers to American cuisine or at least the lower echelons of it. Whenever in the USA they tend to try places unheard of in Japan or compare easy-to-order fast food fare like McDonald’s.

One place that’s often overlooked on these trips is Denny’s. Already a well-established “family restaurant” (low-priced restaurant with waiting staff) in Japan they just assumed it was more of the same in America too.

However, after his close encounter with an empty gate at Area 51, our reporter Go Hatori was cruising across the vastness of the US and began feeling a little fatigued. He suddenly spotted that familiar yellow sign of a Denny’s and thought it would be a good place to catch a quick little bite.

Little did he know what lay in store…

Sanrio 2015 mid-election polls show Hello Kitty losing to visual kei band by wide margin

Master Blaster
May 30, 2015

From 10 May to 15 June voting is being held of the 30th annual Sanrio Character Ranking. This is where the company pits their vast library of cute characters such as Hello Kitty against each other in a popularity contest.

You can expect to see the top-ranking characters get the most exposure through merchandising and spokesperson deals for the rest of the year. And now with two weeks past and the preliminary results announced, many are surprised to see the fictional visual kei (think glam rock) group Shingan Crimsonz at the top of the list of 100 characters well ahead of cuteness stalwarts such as Hello Kitty and Little Twin Stars.

This has caused tremors in the cute character community with many suspecting that Japan’s homo-erotic fan fiction loving girls known as fujoshi may have formed a powerful voting bloc.

15 million flowers are in beautiful bloom right now at Saitama’s field of Heavenly Poppies

Casey Baseel
May 30, 2015

As Japan gets ready to flip the calendar from May to June, it’s a perfect time to get out of the house and spend some time outdoors. If you’re the sort who hates cold weather, it’s finally warm enough to spend the afternoon outside with no need of a jacket, and if you can’t stand the heat, you’ve only got a few weeks left until the onset of the steamy rainy season and sizzling midsummer weather patterns.

And to sweeten the deal, right now there’s a perfect spot for your sojourn with nature, this breathtaking field of over 15 million flowers in Saitama Prefecture known as the Heavenly Poppies.

Super Mega Important Debate – Japanese squat toilets: Great or gross? 【Poll closed】

ロケットニュース24
May 30, 2015

Picture the scene: you’re waiting for your number to be called at City Hall or some other municipal building in rural Japan, when suddenly your stomach starts growling and your gut begins to twitch and spasm as that super-greasy kimchi ramen you had for lunch is pushed at top speed through your digestive tract. If you don’t go now – right now – things could get messy fast, so you make a beeline for the restroom and hope that there’s a stall free. Inside the restroom, you charge towards the half-open door on the end, a layer of sweat forming on your brow as your body starts counting down, T-minus 10 seconds to total evacuation.

Then it hits you: the stall you’re standing in is fitted not with a luxurious, bidet-equipped, warms your backside and plays music at you Washlet brand of toilet, but an old-school, upside-down urinal built into the floor Japanese squat toilet.

There’s no backing out now. The deed must be done. The question is, how traumatised will you be after using it?

Samsung is reportedly developing a crazy phone with two screens that you might be able to fold in half

BUSINESS INSIDER
May 30, 2015

Samsung is reportedly developing a new phone that will have two screens, according to blog Sam Mobile, which has a solid track record for reporting leaked information about upcoming Samsung products.

Godzilla gets official Tokyo residency papers, copies being given out free to fans

Casey Baseel
May 30, 2015

You could make a long list about all the ways Japan is uniquely awesome (and as a matter of fact, we just did), but it’s not like every aspect of life in Japan is more enjoyable than in other countries. For example, taking care of paperwork at city hall or other government facilities is as boring as it is anywhere else in the world.

So why is it that this week people have been voluntarily visiting the Shinjuku ward office in the heart of Tokyo? Because they want to get a copy of the official residency document of the district’s newest resident, Godzilla!